Silver Star paratroopers recount combat action

By David Bedard
JBER PAO

Spcs. Ryan Chester and Robert Parson don’t describe
themselves as heroes, despite the fact their actions
earned both paratroopers the Silver Star for heroism in
Afghanistan, during their year-long deployment with 4th
Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 25th Infantry Division.

U.S. Army Alaska Commanding General, Maj. Gen. William
J. Troy, pinned Silver Star medals on the Soldiers’
chests during a June 22 ceremony, at Joint Base
Elmendorf-Richardson’s Pershing Field.

Chester was part of a mounted 1st Squadron (Airborne),
40th Cavalry Regiment combat patrol near Moshak,
Afghanistan, when his convoy was ambushed by at least 30
insurgents.

Without line of sight to the rest of the platoon,
Specialist Chester, manning the gun turret, was forced
to defend his crippled Mine Resistant Ambush Protected
vehicle against effective rocket-propelled grenade and
light machine gun fire, using the vehicle’s M2
.50-caliber machine gun and several M4 carbines to kill
and suppress the enemy.

Despite being hit with enemy automatic weapons fire
twice, and being wounded in the arm by a grenade, Parson
took up a position making himself vulnerable to enemy
fire to provide suppressing fires while his squad mates
pulled Curtiss to a safe location.

Curtiss succumbed to his wounds.

With his assignment to Alaska and deployment to
Afghanistan, Chester said, he has come a long way from
his roots.

The paratrooper grew up in the town of Big Sandy, Tenn.,
which has a population of 518, according to the 2000
Census.

After several years working in the automotive industry,
he enlisted in the Army to be an airborne infantryman.

“I joined the military because jobs were starting to get
scarce,” he said.

Parson grew up in the much larger community of Texas
City, Texas, with a 2000 Census population of 41,521.

He earned his GED, embarking on a number of odd jobs,
including house framing, before he enlisted in the Army
to better provide for his wife and four children.

“I joined the Army because I needed to get away from
where I was at, and do better things because of my
family,” Parson said.

Though both were assigned to Fort Richardson as their
first duty assignment, the paratroopers have varying
views of life in the northern state. Chester said he
chafes at the long, cold winters while Parson said he
discovered wonderment in the 49th State.

“I really had never seen snow or mountains before,
because I’m from south Texas,” Parson said with a grin.
“So I was kind of excited. It was a new place and I
never got out of Texas much.”

The paratroopers shipped out to Afghanistan’s eastern
border with Pakistan in February 2009, where the brigade
provided security for and partnered with the governments
of Paktika, Paktiya and Khowst provinces.

On July 6, 2009, Chester faced more than a dozen
insurgents determined to destroy his vehicle with RPG
fire in an effort to compromise the MRAP structure.

When a round struck his ammunition canister, Chester was
knocked out of the turret and was peppered with
shrapnel, resulting in what he called minor wounds which
marred his face, hands and arms with ballpoint pen
tip-sized fragments.

Despite his wounds, the infantryman said he stayed in
the turret because of his Deltoid and Axillary
Protection System armor, worn by turret gunners in
accordance with standard operating procedures.

“I figured I had a better chance of surviving something
if I got hit with the extra armor on than they did,” he
explained.

Chester said his fellow crew members helped by handing
him their carbines and ammunition between machine gun
reloads.

“I had to swap out with several M4s,” he said. “As I
would empty a magazine, I would hand it down and they
would hand another one back up to continue firing.”

All told, Chester fought off the enemy for 25 minutes
straight, and he is credited with saving the lives of
his crew and other members of his platoon.

“I did what any other member of my platoon would have
done in the same situation,” he said with a serious
gaze. “It’s what we’re trained to do, day in and day
out. We’re supposed to do it without even thinking.”

During his efforts to reach his squad leader, Parson
said his conduct depended on a simple decision.

“It comes down to either you do it or not do it,” he
said. “You don’t have time to think when there’s a group
of people with automatic weapons 10 feet away from you
trying to take your life.”

The Texan said he was driven by a fierce loyalty for the
noncommissioned officer who prepared him for combat.

“Sergeant Curtiss meant a lot to me,” he said.

“When I first got here, he showed me everything,” Parson
said, explaining Curtiss taught him what to bring on
deployment, items ranging from parachute chord to baby
wipes. “Just small things that only a veteran would
know.

“When he went down it was like...” the infantryman
paused. “We were getting him out. I was getting him out.
It was going to happen and that was the only way I could
think.”

After the first Soldier in the door stumbled, Parson
said he was left to face the insurgents full on,
receiving two bullet strikes to his chest.

“It felt like a mule kicked me in the chest and on the
side,” he said. “My momentum was gone. I’m getting in
and I stopped dead in my tracks.”

Parson said he rolled out of his way to what he thought
was good cover, carrying out a self check where he found
a little blood.

“Luckily, my armor did its job,” he said.

His position wasn’t as sound as he first believed,
Parson recalled. He was cut off from the rest of his
platoon, forcing him to come to grips with his
precarious situation.

“It was time to decide,” he said. “Am I going to sit
here and be a casualty, or am I going to make a move and
do something?”

He said he got up, returned fire and linked back up with
his platoon, later providing cover fire which exposed
him but allowed for the extraction of Curtiss.

Amazingly, Parson was never evacuated to a combat
support hospital for his wounds. Instead, he received a
clean bill of health from unit physicians.

“Doctors came over and looked at me,” he said. “They put
a little something over it, and I went back out there
and pulled guard.”

Like Specialist Chester, Specialist Parson said he feels
his actions were nothing remarkable.

“I don’t think I’m a hero,” he said plainly. “There was
nothing special about it. It’s just what I do, and I
think that any paratrooper that was in my position would
have done the same.

“I didn’t do it by myself,” he continued. “I want people
to know I wasn’t there by myself. I had a platoon of men
with me, good men who did a lot that day. I don’t know
why I stand out. It’s what I was trained to do. I did
what I was taught.”

Both paratroopers expressed their loyalty to their
brigade and their pride in being airborne Soldiers.

“I really like how the brigade functions as a whole,”
Chester said. “I don’t think any other unit has as much
camaraderie as we do, and jumping out of planes is just
fun.”

“As far as being a paratrooper, it’s a lot to live up
to,” Parson said. “All the paratroopers before us in
other wars like Vietnam, World War II, those were the
men of men. It’s a long line that is hard to live up to
sometimes, because you feel like you’re not doing
enough.

“Being a paratrooper sets
you apart and I guess that’s what makes it special,” he
said. “It’s why I wanted it. That and there’s nothing
better than jumping.”